MILAN: Paulo Dybala continued his astonishing start to the season as he netted twice to lead Juventus to a 4-0 win over self-destructing neighbours Torino and maintain their perfect start in Serie A on Saturday.

The Argentine striker has now scored an impressive ten goals — including two hat-tricks — in six Serie A games with Miralem Pjanic and Alex Sandro also on target at the Allianz Stadium after Torino midfielder Daniele Baselli was sent off after 24 minutes of the Derby della Mole.

“Torino usually cause problems for their opponents, but we were never under threat tonight,” Pjanic told Mediaset Premium.

Napoli also notched up their sixth straight win, beating SPAL 3-2 after Faouzi Ghoulam’s late goal saw off a brave challenge from their promoted opponents.

Napoli, last season’s top scorers, have hit 22 goals already and lead champions Juve on goal difference with both sides on a maximum 18 points.

AS Roma cruised past Udinese 3-1, to give all of Italy’s Champions League contenders confidence boosts ahead of next week’s action. Roma, who have played a match less, remained six points behind.

Torino shot themselves in the foot early on, first by gifting Juventus the lead as Baselli and Tomas Rincon gave away possession and Dybala drilled into the bottom right corner from the edge of the area after 16 minutes.

Matters grew worse for Torino eight minutes later when Baselli, who had already been booked, clumsily clattered into Pjanic and he was shown a second yellow card and dismissed.

“I was too eager for the derby, I cared too much about this game. I made a mistake. I apologise to my team-mates, our fans, the club,” Baselli wrote on Twitter.

A Pjanic free kick five minutes before the break gave Juve their second with Sandro heading in the third after 57 minutes before Dybala dinked the ball over Torino goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu after good linkup play between Pjanic and substitute Gonzalo Higuain in stoppage time.

Despite their Serie A run Massimiliano Allegri’s side lost their Champions League opener 3-0 at Barcelona and next host Greek champions Olympiakos on Wednesday.

“The team will give a response at home, as we want to get through to the next round,” warned Pjanic. “Olympiakos have quality, so we must try to dominate from the start and put the pressure on straight away, as we did tonight.”

Pasquale Schiattarella gave SPAL a shock lead in the 13th minute but Lorenzo Insigne equalised one minute later.

Jose Callejon headed Napoli in front in the 71st minute only for SPAL to hit back seven minutes later when Federico Viviani curled in a free kick.

Napoli — who next host Feyenoord in Champions League action Tuesday — refused to give up and Ghoulam settled matters with a fine solo effort, the Algerian running at the SPAL defence and cutting inside to finish with his right foot.

Earlier Italian forward Stephan El Shaarawy scored twice in the first half after Edin Dzeko’s 12th-minute opener, as Roma moved up to fourth.

Diego Perotti missed a penalty for Roma before Jens Stryger Larsen scored a last-minute consolation for Udinese.

It was a confidence-boosing performance for Roma ahead of their midweek Champions League trip to Qarabag in Azerbaijan.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2017